Solar activity reached high levels yesterday with seven M-class solar flares and three CMEs. Almost all of the explosions were produced by monster sunspot AR1967 (the former AR1944 sunspot), shown here in a photo from Chris Schur of Payson, Arizona:

Click to viewthe entire sunspot. AR1967 is wider than the planet Jupiter and its primary dark cores are big enough to swallow Earth many times over. The scale of the thing makes it an easy target for backyard solar telescopes. "I used an Explore Scientific AR152 to take the picture," says Schur. "This is one of the most photogenic sunspots I have ever seen." AR1967 has a 'delta-class' magnetic field that harbors energy for strong eruptions. The growing complexity of the region has prompted NOAA forecasters to boost the odds of X-flares to 50% during the next 24 hours. Because AR1967 is near the center of the solar disk, any eruptions will be squarely Earth directed. www.spaceweather.com